UK Repeal Bill sets up clash with opposition parties over rights and devolution

LONDON — Theresa May is on a collision course with opposition parties and the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales after measures set out in key Brexit legislation were attacked on several fronts.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — known as the Repeal Bill — published Thursday, sets out the government’s plans to convert the vast majority of EU law and regulation into U.K. law.

However, Labour is set to oppose the government’s decision not to incorporate the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights into British law. Separately, the first ministers of Scotland and Wales issued a joint statement saying they would not support the devolved Scottish and Welsh assemblies giving consent to the Bill – something the U.K. government has pledged to seek.

The Scottish National Party’s Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland, and Labour’s Carwyn Jones, the Welsh first minister, called the bill “a naked power-grab” which returned EU powers to Westminster, not to Scotland and Wales.

U.K. ministers insist the bill removes no powers from the devolved administrations. It does not, however, devolve any EU powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — something the government has pledged will happen as a result of Brexit. In an explanatory paper published to accompany the bill, the Department for Exiting the European Union said this was merely a “transitional arrangement.”

In Westminster, the first battle over the bill’s contents is likely to focus on the protection of existing EU rights. The text of the bill states “the Charter of Fundamental Rights is not part of domestic law on or after exit day.”

Ministers will argue that the provisions of the charter, which enshrines political, social and economic rights of EU citizens, are already provided for in other EU laws that will be converted into U.K. law. But Labour and the Liberal Democrats have made defending existing rights a key part of their Brexit strategy and will push back against the measure.

The three key purposes of the bill are to repeal the European Communities Act 1972 — ending the supremacy of EU law; to transfer the majority of EU regulation and law (about 12,000 separate regulations) into U.K. law to ensure continuity on Day One after Britain leaves; and to give the government powers to quickly alter legislation that no longer functions properly — for example if it refers to an EU agency that no longer operates in the U.K. — without full parliamentary scrutiny.

These so-called Henry VIII powers will expire two years after Brexit, according to the bill. However, opposition parties will warn that there are no safeguards in place to prevent the government using them to make major policy changes.

Keir Starmer, Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, said the bill was “simply not fit for purpose.”

“The bill proposes sweeping new powers for ministers that are fundamentally undemocratic, unaccountable and unacceptable,” he said. “It fails to guarantee crucial rights will be enforced; it omits the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and it does nothing to ensure that British standards and rights keep pace with our EU partners.”

“Labour are putting the prime minister on notice that unless the bill is significantly improved in all these areas, Labour will vote it down in the House of Commons.”

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said he was keen to work across party lines. “These vital protections, enshrined in European law, from workers’ rights to the environment, matter and we will defend them to the hilt.”

In their joint statement, Sturgeon and Jones said: “We have repeatedly tried to engage with the U.K. government on these matters, and have put forward constructive proposals about how we can deliver an outcome which will protect the interests of all the nations in the U.K., safeguard our economies and respect devolution.

“Regrettably, the bill does not do this. Instead, it is a naked power-grab, an attack on the founding principles of devolution and could destabilise our economies.”